Jessie Reyez 'Far Away' by Peter Huang

David Knight - 15th Oct 2019

Canadian director Peter Huang has already made a number of powerful videos for Canadian-Colombian singer Jessie Reyez - including the extraordinary Body Count and her pugnacious turn opposite Eminem in Good Guy. Their latest collaboration is for Far Away, which is deceptively powerful with a humanitarian purpose.

This starts as one thing - a conventional, mildly salacious pop promo - before Huang starts to undermine the prevailing reality. We see this scene is being watched on TV by two generations of males in a lower-income American family, intercut with shots of Trump.

Huang's next reality is a Saturday night dance, featuring Reyez dancing with her boyfriend, among other couples - a serenity shattered by tear gas cannisters and ICE officials tearing people from their loved ones. Her lover is then visualised in a colourful Latin-esque portrait with his mother - and then he's dead in her arms.

Huang's imaginative use of imagery creates a sense of unease and chaos which serves to evoke the fear and horror created by Trump's immigration policies, the violence suffered by immigrants at the hands of ICE officers. The video implores viewers to 'be part of the solution' and directs them to JessieReyez.com, where three non-profit organizations are tagged: the American Civil Liberties Union, Al Otro Lado and The Florence Project.

In an official statement shared with CBS News, the singer has said: “I see myself in those that are being wrongfully persecuted. I see my dad anytime I see people disrespecting a Latino because they can’t speak English properly. I see those things. I wanted to make it as potent a visual as possible. So it can be a catalyst in your brain.”